The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1887-03-03
A BLAST AGAINST BIRMINGHAM
Sanitary Conditions Threatening Disaster
"A City Without Homes-Evils of Inflat-
ed Land Prices.
From the Ncy York Times.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala, February 10.


BIRMINGHAM, Ala, February 10.
Having gained some idea of the vast
extent of the mineral resources of this
region-too vast for full information /;
having noted Birmingham's proximity to
coal and iron ore and limestone, all the
needed ingredients for pig iron making
having seen not only the juxtaposition
and the abundance of this raw material,
but the substantial richness of it also;
having followed the plans and the won.
derful financial realization of the syndi.
cafe that scooped in these original acres
aud converted barrenness into "choice
building sites," let us glance now at what
Birmingham as city--as place to live
in-has come to be. To tell the truth of
Birmingham town won't be all one string
Of Aattery. Unvarnished fact, however,
isn'ta drug on the Birmingham market
just yet. The map, all gaudily colored (;
the pamphlet prospectus with its wealth
of superlatives and sky-high adjectiVes; /;
the abundant real estate agent, rioting in
defamation and deep.lunged lies; the
syndicate man, the apostle of hundred
interests-the boomer universal these
are the describers of Birmingham that
Birmingham herself provides. The man
who believes all they say, or the half of
what they say, ought to get guardian at
once; the man who puts out money on
their say SO merely, that man was made
to mourn it we're base fattery to call
him an ass he'll always be lonesome
outside lunatic asylum.
Yet there are such men, hosts of them,
with never so much as a thought of
investigation, with apparently no care
whatever as to the sense or the nonsense
of the stories they hear, who are sending
or bringing thousands and hundreds of
dollars there daily for Investment" If
signs do not fail they'll find all the judg.
ment day they want in this world with
out waiting for the next.
Now, here is good, straightout,
honest statement to begin with: Bir-
mingham is not safe place to live in.
birmingham is situated in a valley
undulatory and naturally drained"
Well. there is no artificial drainage that
is sure. And ifthe lack of sewers, the
absence even ofrude cutters to dispose of
slops and filth, the utter cerelessness of
every sanitary need-if this means "nat-
ural drainage" then Birmingham has
and has abnndantly. There is no river,
big or small, there is no water course
here at all. Simply described, Birming-
ham town is just one fat stretch of soil,
hemmed in by mountain sides suddenly
rising from her limits. The mountains
drain on Birmingham; Birmingham
drains on herself. Were there even an
insignificant creek at hand sanitary
necessities could be readily attended. AS
natural conditions do not exist in this
fiat territory anything akin to satisfac-
tory sewerage system will require the
expenditure of immense sums of money.
One or two puny, cheap and abortive
schemes 80 far has been too much given
over to booming to think to care appa-
rently for trivial things like this of max
ing her homes habitable.
The result is that to day when an
observer goes through the streets he is
largely oblivious to everything save that
he has nose Pools Of green and shiny
water, nastiness trickling from back yard
to back yard, hogs running loose in every
part of the town (all unsuspicious that
they are not in a fit aud appropriate
city,) streets that are only stretchers of
miry clay, unsafe for light wagons, unfit
for heavy ones, stencil, stencil, stencil
on the ground, in the air-stench every.
where, stencil eternal Thirty thousand
people massed in one topsy.turvy COM
munity; $4,000 people with no running
water within milee, with no sewerage
system, with soil soaked till it is fabby
with filth, with nastiness accumulated
and accumulating in very lakes. This
means and can mean but one thing !; and
that one thing is that Birmingham bids
defiance to the sternest of all natural
laws, courts diseases, tempts epidemic.
The cholera that nipped the first year Of
her existence, when but 1900 or 1900
people were here, taught its terrible les
son in vain. Men fell by scores in her
very streets then, unwarned of their
danger; but with all that deadly expert
ence there is no more security against the
same epidemic now than there was then,
nor so much, for where there WAS little
community at that time, there is at pres.
ent driving city Of $4,000 souls. Men
overlaxed by excitement and wearied by
trying schemes of money making crowd
here now, sensitive to disease, almost
nervously PROSTATE the half of them.
And how do these 10000 live? Badly
enough. New York's tenement system
is possibly triae worse. With her boast
of 10000 population-and entertain nc
doubt that 10000 is. fair estimate
Birmingham has not house room fol
$1,000. By house room I mean ar
accommodation safe from a health point
of view. i'll meant comfortable house
room I would have to cut down the
estimate at least SO per cent. further
There are mighty few babitations here
that may in any sense lay claim to men
tion as homes. Yes, there are some
handsome residences; the prospectus
tells you quite all about them; they art
few it won't tire you 10 remember the
separate description of each and every